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Private data belonging to 26 Texas law enforcement agencies that was published online by the hacking group Anonymous earlier this month contains hundreds of social security numbers, scores of passwords, and loads of other sensitive information, according to a leading developer of data loss prevention software.

Anonymous hackers released a 3GB file containing emails and documents from Texas law enforcement agencies on Sept. 2, claiming the data dump was done in retaliation for recent arrests of alleged members of the loosely affiliated hacking group.

"In retaliation for the arrests of dozens of alleged Anonymous suspects, we opened fire on dozens of Texas police departments and stole boatloads of classified police documents and police chief emails across the state," Anonymous wrote in a note advertising the data dump.

Identity Finder, a developer of identity protection and data loss prevention software, combed through the 3GB file with its DLP software tool, which analyzes files and emails to determine whether sensitive information exists in them. The company did a similar analysis of 10GB of sensitive files containing hacked data from more than 70 U.S. law enforcement agencies that Anonymous published in August as part of its "AntiSec" operation.

As with the earlier AntiSec breach, the Texas data dump contains a staggering amount of sensitive information that could potentially be used to cause serious trouble for the legitimate owners of the email addresses, passwords, street addresses, credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, and other information that was published.

Identity Finder broke down the particular of just what was published, which includes:

Damon Poeter got his start in journalism working for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. He covered everything from local news to sports and entertainment before settling on technology in the mid-2000s. Prior to joining PCMag, Damon worked at CRN and the Gilroy Dispatch. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and Japan Times, among other newspapers and periodicals.
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